Once
again Cruise SA is basking in the autumnal lime light.
The beginning of April saw our Cruise Sub-Aqua division
providing technical scuba expertise to Discovery Channel's
Dirty Jobs series hosting the ultra-brave Mike Rowe.
Expert Scuba diver Adam Cruise was on hand with our
Full Face Masks so that Mike could communicate
underwater to millions of viewers while diving with
Great White Sharks.
The Great White Sharks put on their usual awesome display
and provided Mike with the experience of his life. This
portion of the Dirty Jobs series will be screened in
August to USA audiences during Discovery Channel's
now infamous Shark Week! While we are on the subject
of stardom, BBC's Food Channel is airing the
long awaited off-the-wall series of Cooked in South
Africa on DSTV on Tuesday the 18th April at 9pm. "...this
brand new cooking adventure show sees food lover Justin
Bonello, and friends, travelling around South Africa
cooking simple but delicious meals in sometimes very
surprising circumstances. There isn't always a kitchen
on hand or even kitchen utensils but nothing fazes Justin
and his enthusiasm for all things food oozes from every
frame in this great new series". Of course it was
Cruise South Africa's Penguin Bus that got them
around often traversing rocky roads where no bus has
been before!
The
crew from Cooked maintain traversing around South Africa
is cool! That's why we call ourselves Cruise South Africa
- laid back, slow and steady cruisin'. Its all in the
name. The ever popular Cape Town Day Tours depart
for Table Mountain, Cape Point and the winelands on
a daily basis and there is always an adventurous bunch
of tourists from all nationalities heading down to the
Garden Route for a spot of bungi jumping, cave-exploring,
scuba diving and sky-diving. Cruise SA also facilitated
the internationally attended Rock Slopes Stability
Conference in Cape Town where 167 mining delegates
converged on the V&A Waterfront to discuss the intricate
and complex details of keeping mined-out slopes stable
- all very technical! A lot of the delegates hailed
from Australia, just in time to witness their Cricket
Team whitewash the South Africans in the 3-match Test
Series (although we did "have the wood over them"
the ODI series that has gone down in the history of
cricket for the extraordinary records broken). Just
as technical but a lot more exciting for the general
Cape Town public was the International Jazz Festival
at the beginning of the month where the world's best
Jazz musicians put on a display that rivals New Orleans
- in fact, lets say it right here right now on the Cruise
South Africa home-page: CAPE TOWN IS THE NEW JAZZ CAPITAL
OF THE WORLD!
Jazz
was not the only music heard in Cape Town over the past
month, the scuba dives have been diving to a gurgling
tune of their own. Cruise Sub Aqua's frog-footed Sub
Aquarians took a plunge in the Shark Tank at the Two
Oceans Aquarium to see how close and personal they
could get to some BIG toothy sharks...and....they got
REAL close! So all divers, (no matter your experience)
contact us for a chance to dive with sharks while your
friends and family watch from the safety on a ten-inch
plexi-glass window.
But
wait! That's not all. Just when those Aquarium divers
thought they had got as close as they could get to the
sharks in the Two Oceans Aquarium, the very next day,
they got even closer to a wild shark in the open ocean
when a two metre Seven-Gill Shark decided to literally
brush past the noses of four of our divers at Pyramid
Rock just south of Simonstown. It's the only time we
saw divers break the cardinal scuba rule - "Breathe
continuously and NEVER hold your breath". So if
there are any divers out there that are bored of just
floating around looking at cute little fish, we'll change
ALL that for you! It's not just the sharks that have
been busy, our PADI Divemasters and Instructors have
been swimming their fins off teaching a whole new shoal
of new divers - check the dive courses link on Cruise
Sub Aqua to see who's new in the watery zoo. We have
already taken the first bookings for the annual Sardine
Run in June 2006. This is a diving expedition of
a lifetime. As a diver you cannot afford to let this
one go!!
Finally,
while on the mention of Two Oceans Aquarium, let us
just clear up a small matter that has confused visitors
to Cape Town for decades. Capetonians are under the
[mis]conception that they live on the great divide of
two oceans - the Indian on the east of the peninsula
and the Atlantic on the west. That is why a lot of things
in Cape Town are called Two Oceans This or That eg.
Two Oceans Aquarium, Two Oceans Marathon (being held
on the 15th April), Two Oceans Real Estate etc. etc
ad nausium. Unfortunately this just highlights a peculiar
trait of the Capetonians rather than the geographical
truth. Capetonians believe that since they are fortunate
enough to live in a very special town, therefore EVERYTHING
must be special and while we agree that almost everything
is special about Cape Town, the fact that we live between
two oceans is not. The great divide, as it were, lies
further to the south-east, at Cape Agulhas, the southern-most
tip of Africa. The Cape of Good Hope near Cape Town
is the South-Western-most tip of Africa[?!]. The Cape
of Good Hope has the right look, though, for holding
the title of Two Oceans; with its plunging cliffs and
stormy seas that have led sailors to refer to it as
the Cape of Storms. Well, the look is there because
Cape Town is the great divide between two mighty but
contrasting OCEAN CURRENTS - the warm Agulhas and the
cool Benguela Current. In other words, the names of
Two Oceans This or That should be changed to Two Ocean
Currents This or That. However, it may sound odd calling
things Two Ocean Currents Marathon or Two Ocean Currents
Aquarium. Perhaps its better just leave the Capetonians
to their odd little quirks...
NEWSFLASH:
Next month Cruise South Africa makes its way to Durban
for the INDABA 2006 TRAVEL SHOW where we will
be showcasing the very best of South Africa to the world.
Come visit us in the ICC hall stand 141.
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